Virat Kohli walked out for the toss for the third time in a row as Royal Challengers Bangalore’s regular captain Faf du Plessis continued to play only as a batter due to an injury that restricts his fielding abilities. Kohli won the toss against Kolkata Knight Riders amid loud cheers from the capacity crowd at the Chinaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and opted to bowl first. The cheers were in two parts – first to see Kohli leading again and then when he won the toss.
Kohli, who stepped down as RCB captain ahead of last year’s IPL, said the feeling of leading the side is not new to him when former India head coach Ravi Shastri asked him about his feelings at toss time. “It was unexpected but nothing that I’m not used to,” Kohli said with a smile.
“The planning was good, the guys have been playing great cricket. So it wasn’t difficult for me to step in and just handle things a little bit. Obviously, (when you are captain) you see things a little differently. I do certain things on the field instinctively, which comes naturally,” he added.
When asked about du Plessis’ injury, Kohli said the South African great should be back as the captain from the next match. “He will be playing as an Impact Player again. Hopefully, he will be fine by the next game and be back as captain,” Kohli said.
KKR, who have lost four matches on the trot, dropped Kulwant Khejroliya to bring in right-arm pacer Vaibhav Arora. KKR captain Nitish Rana, surprisingly said he would have batted first so that his spinners could come into the game later on in the evening.
“Second half of the tournament has started, it’s an important game. We’ve played some good cricket, some not so good. It’s time to step up. If we play well collectively, the result will be in our favour. In previous games, we’ve had forced changes. Shardul had a niggle, and Gurbaz had a niggle,” he said.
Royal Challengers Bangalore XI: Virat Kohli (c), Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj.
Kolkata Knight Riders XI: N Jagadeesan (wk), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy.
